Historic background
A small settlement which may in-part have owed its existence to its role as a landing place from the sea before the construction of the Cob. The village developed largely as a series of terraced houses in the 19th and 20th centuries. Garreg Terrace and the very substantial public house (Brondanw Arms), built of rubble construction with a continuous slate roof, dates to the third quarter of the 19th century with 20th century alterations by Clough Williams-Ellis; while Cyffin Terrace is a very distinctive long late 19th terrace with later additions (see photograph). All of these are listed buildings. The village now tends to function as a dormitory for Porthmadog, Penrhyndeudraeth and beyond.
Key historic landscape characteristics
19th-century estate village, work of Clough Williams-Ellis
A village still partly owned by the Brondanw estate, whose distinctive pale blue paintwork is to be seen in many locations. Clough Williams-Ellis war memorial is a prominent feature, designed in 1922 on a site which he had previously earmarked for the village hall (SH 6123 4171). Other traces of Williams-Ellis whimsy survive in the immediate vicinity such as the stone ‘beehive’ by the side of the road. Many of these are listed. Modern housing has tended to be built 'around the corner' to the south-east of the older terraces, on the hillslope which rises above the floodplain < back to the map
